Friday morning I was wide awake at 3 AM. I usually get up around 4:30 AM. I just could not sleep any longer, so I hopped out of bed. Well, stumbled is more like it. I made coffee, grabbed my blanket and computer and headed to the couch until it was time to start getting ready for work. I have had so much on my mind about the things I need to do before year’s end that even making a list (and checking it twice) wasn’t helping much.
And I could not stop thinking about the wonder of that first Christmas. What it must have been like in the dark night before the shepherds arrived with the news of the angel’s message.
What was it like for Joseph? He must have felt a bit helpless, perhaps even like a failure. He’d brought Mary on a long trip during her last trimester of pregnancy, when she was the most uncomfortable. They’d ended up in the lowliest of places. He must have been humiliated. Perhaps he was also a bit angry that those who had more sheltered areas in the “inn” would not relinquish them even to a young girl in labor with her firstborn.
What was it like for Mary? I imagine she was scared. I know I was scared with my firstborn and I had a lot of help around. Had she seen other women in her family give birth? Did she know what to expect? She knew this was God’s child – if anyone knew that, she did. Did that same faith that she had when the angel first appeared to her to announce that she would be the Messiah’s mother rise again as she faced the travail of labor?
Whatever it was like for them, before that dark night was over Jesus was born. Mary would have been like all mothers, counting his little fingers and toes, kissing his cheek, placing him at her breast. God’s Son had arrived on earth and for the next 33 years he would share in the limitations of mortal flesh.
John 1:9: The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. [NIV]
Wonder of wonders!
